If you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you believe something is right or wrong, true of false, you believe the assumptions in the words which express the arguments. Such assumptions are often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced.

Hopkins, in verse 396, renders this "essence of compassion and emptiness"

I remember attending a talk by Robert Thurman, where he described this concept as something like "true emptiness is indeed true compassion". In many other translations, it is as Hopkins rendered - essence of compassion + emptiness, which gives a notion of compassion and emptiness as two separate things co-joined. I somehow prefer Thurman's explanation.

If you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you believe something is right or wrong, true of false, you believe the assumptions in the words which express the arguments. Such assumptions are often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced.